shobhitpuri / git-refresh

Friendlier custom git commands to simplify tasks like switching branches, pulling changes from a different remote branch to your current local branch and pushing changes to remote etc.

Index

1. git-refresh - Refresh current local branch with any remote branch easily.
2. git-pushremote - Push local branch changes to remote branch after updating from it.
3. git-switch - Switch branches easily. Takes care of stashing changes and creating a new branch if required.
4. Setup Cutom Commands - Get started in 5 minutes max.
5. Creating Custom Git Commands - Have your own ideas? Create custom scripts.

git-refresh

This enables you to pull changes from a different remote branch to your local branch with just one command. You can write your own custom git commands to do whatever repetitive actions you do multiple times a day. For, me I usually update my local branch with the remote branch from which I branched off initially. Doing this would usually take multiple commands.

Instead of:

git stash
git checkout remote-branch
git pull --rebase origin remote-branch
git checkout current-branch
git rebase remote-branch
git stash apply

you can just do:

git refresh remote-branch-name

Usage

git refresh remote-branch-name

remote-branch-name is the remote branch from which you want to pull changes.

git-pushremote

git-pushremote enables you to push your changes to remote origin to the same branch name as local. It also checks if the remote branch exists or not. If it exists, it updates your local branch with remote before pushesing the commits.

Instead of:

git stash
git pull --rebase origin current-branch
git push origin current-branch
git stash apply

you can just do:

git pushremote

Usage

While you are on your current local branch you want to push, do:

git pushremote

If you want to force push just use

git pushremote -f

git-switch

git-switch enables you to switch to a new or existing branch easliy. You don't need to worry about stashing changes or looking into if the branch already exist or not. It will create the branch if it does not exists, otherwise will just switch to the banch and apply the stashed changes.

Instead of:

git stash
git checkout old-branch (or git checkout -b new-branch)
git stash apply

you can just do:

git switch checkout-branch-name

Usage

Just provide the branch name to which you want to switch as follows:

git switch checkout-branch-name

Setup

1. Put the git-refresh and git-pushremote files anywhere on your system in a folder. Lets say you've put in the folder named gitScripts, so the folder path is /Users/username/path/gitScripts/

2. Add the directory path to your environment PATH. For Linux/Mac, you can edit your bash_profile by doing vim ~/.bash_profile. Add following line in the file in the beginning:

   #!/bin/bash
   # For git commands
   export PATH=$PATH:/Users/user/Documents/gitScripts
   # Other existing export statements.
   # End of file
   

   Now after saving the file, do the following on the terminal:

   source ~/.bash_profile
   

3. That's it. You are done. You should be able run the commands.

Writing custom git commands

Lets say you want to make a command git awesome which takes one parameter and then calls series of git commands.

1. Create a file named git-awesome in a folder somewhere.

2. Add that folder path to your environment PATH as shown previously, if not already.

3. Have the following inside the file:

   #!/bin/sh
   
   # Check if params are sufficient enough to go ahead.
   # P.S: This command takes one parameter so check if you have the param.
   parameter=$1
   test -z $parameter && echo "ERROR: Please provide the param." 1>&2 && exit 1
   
   # Find which is your current branch
   if currentBranch=$(git symbolic-ref --short -q HEAD)
   then
     echo On branch $currentBranch
     echo Doing work using $parameter ...
     # Write your git commands here
     echo Success!
   else
     echo ERROR: Cannot find the current branch!
   fi
   

Credits and Inspiration : Extending Git: add a custom command